Obama: 2016 could be 'undignifying'

President Barack Obama, quoted in a profile about Vice President Joe Biden published Monday, questioned whether Biden and Hillary Clinton would want to subject themselves to the “undignifying process” of running for president.

Obama, who has expressed increasing weariness and frustration with Washington, suggested the two would likely consider the personal toll another campaign would take.

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“I think that, for both Joe and for Hillary, they’ve already accomplished an awful lot in their lives,” the president said in a profile of Biden published in The New Yorker. “The question is, do they, at this phase in their lives, want to go through the pretty undignifying process of running all over again.” The report noted that “Obama couldn’t hide his bewilderment” that the pair of political veterans would consider another run.

In 2008, Clinton and Biden, both senators at the time, ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden also vied for the nomination in a bid in 1988.

Obama went on to effusively praise his vice president, calling him “extremely loyal” and saying he would be great in the Oval Office.

“I think Joe would be a superb President,” the president said. “He has seen the job up close, he knows what the job entails. He understands how to separate what’s really important from what’s less important. I think he’s got great people skills. He enjoys politics, and he’s got important relationships up on the Hill that would serve him well.”

Obama, who has long been criticized for failing to cultivate relationships with members of Congress, has often deployed Biden to meet with lawmakers on issues like budget negotiations and gun control.

Biden has hinted on numerous occasions that he would consider a run for the Democratic nomination in 2016. The president, though, said that question hasn’t affected his job performance.

“[W]hat I’m very grateful for is that he has not let that question infect our relationship or how he has operated as vice president,” Obama said. “He continues to be extraordinarily loyal. He continues to take on big assignments that may not have a huge political upside,” he said, adding that Biden’s work in Ukraine, for example, isn’t “necessarily helping him in Iowa” or with voters in other early presidential caucus or primary states.

The president also said that Biden’s biggest influence in foreign policy was regarding Afghanistan policy, when Obama in his first term was mulling over a troop surge.

Obama — who ultimately decided in December 2009 for a troop surge of around 30,000 troops with a timetable for withdrawal — reflected on “lengthy one-on-one conversations” with Biden about dealing with the situation in Afghanistan.

The president touched lightly on controversy surrounding a memoir written by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served in the Bush administration. Obama said that Gates “obviously was somewhat invested in continuity from the previous administration, when it came to Afghanistan policy.”

In his book released in January 2014, Gates reflected on that Afghanistan decision and had particularly harsh words for the vice president. Though he called Biden a “man of integrity,” Gates said: “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

Gates said he nearly resigned earlier in 2009 regarding the Afghanistan debate and specifically Biden’s role in shaping it.